The insurance industry continues to be a key player in mitigating the impact of natural disasters on communities. For this reason, a group of US insurers, reinsurers, intermediaries and model providers are forming an advisory board called Helix.
Helix is supported by the institutes and tries to integrate new approaches for automated damage analysis into an overarching framework for the application of new and emerging technologies in the resilience of natural disasters, according to an article by Risk & Insurance.
“We are excited to coordinate these efforts aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of natural disasters,” said Peter Miller, President and CEO of The Institutes. He described Helix as an opportunity to “serve as a neutral third party in working on this important issue that will ultimately benefit the public”.
Helix’s vision is initially based on the implementation of open common data standards for disaster risk analysis and is based on four pillars to support the increasingly broad and growing capabilities of the industry:
- Climate and Resilience: pursuing hazard and resilience research and advocating innovation in insurance products and economic responsiveness;
- Industry-level data standards, data content / interpretation / quality and data resources;
- Technology: transparency in models and analyzes, insurtech innovations and technology solutions;
- Operation: Common industry tools, improved communication / sharing across the value chain, and support / training for the industry
Helix builds on the work of the CMOS initiative (Catastrophe Modeling Operating Standards) of the institutes. The CMOS team completed a survey project in September 2020 to define and implement an open common standard for exposure data. This project also provided a number of recommendations for the community to move the work forward.
“Given the interest and success of CMOS, it is clear that there is a desire for an industry-wide collaboration focused on natural disaster resilience,” said Sean Ringsted, Chubb’s chief risk officer. “We have received great interest in the development of Helix and look forward to other organizations participating.”
The institute is in the process of involving founding members and establishing the corresponding governance structure. Once these are in place, Helix members will set the first priorities in support of the four pillars and capitalizing on the work done under the CMOS initiative. Companies looking for additional information or interested in contributing expertise to the effort can contact The Institutes at [email protected].
Cross-posting from the Triple-I Resilience Accelerator
